The Blakeney Curse...
...has been lifted:
K+S turns sod on first new potash mine in Saskatchewan in 40 years
Allan Blakeney was an NDP Premier of Saskatchewan way back in the '70s. His biggest claim to fame was his nationalization of Saskatchewan's potash industry.
K+S turns sod on first new potash mine in Saskatchewan in 40 years
Allan Blakeney was an NDP Premier of Saskatchewan way back in the '70s. His biggest claim to fame was his nationalization of Saskatchewan's potash industry.
"The company that’s building the first new potash mine in Saskatchewan in 40 years is the same company that helped build the last new potash mine in the province in the 1970s, before it was taken over by the then-NDP government to become Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan’s Lanigan mine."[---]
"Saskatchewan’s reputation as place to invest and do business was damaged by the threat of expropriation during the 1970s.May the Dippers never govern this province again. Why, before you know it, our knuckles will no longer be dragging!
That’s why the Saskatchewan Party government passed legislation in 2008 to repeal the Potash Development Act, which was introduced in 1975 by the Blakeney government to “nationalize’’ the potash industry..."
Labels: knuckledraggerland, NDP, Saskatchewan
posted by Louise at 12:53 am
3 Comments:
Congratulations to the people of Saskatchewan for having the sense to finally vote the Dippers out! The free enterprise opening of a new potash mine is a good exclamation point on the negativity for socializing industries. (The West should have learned from the British examples on that. Over the years, the Labour Party nationalized numerous industries in Britain. When they were all floundering and on the verge of bankruptcy, the Conservatives had the good sense to cut the nation's losses and re-privatize. That worked out pretty well in the Thatcher years and is the only reason that today Britain still has some of these industries.)
My gut tells me they will never be returned to power, or if they do, they will be so different from what they originally were, they won't be recognized. They'll have to move to Quebec.
Oh, wait. They are already there.
They came to power in the 1944 under their old name - Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, CCF for short, and became Saskatchewan's Natural Governing Party. Under their leadership, Saskatchewan languished, drove talent and young people out, and basically shut business and industry out of the province.
Blakeney was only one. Tommy Douglas is probably the most famous. He introduced the first government funded medical system in Canada (North America), right here in Saskatchewan, which later spread to the rest of the country.
The actor, Kiefer Sutherland, BTW, is his grandson.
Douglas is a big hero in some circles, such as the CBC. His daughter (Keifer's mother) worked for the CBC at one time. She's a bitter, angry old hag.
Like a good socialist, Douglas believed in euthanasia and forced sterilization of mentally deficient individuals.
If you are interested, theres a really good book about the Dipper legacy in Saskatchewan called Left Out (catchy and appropriate double entendre), written by Saskatchewan's best known talk radio host, John Gormley, who lefties love to hate. There's also an old book, which I believe is still available, called Agrarian Socialism which documents the CCF's history.
Our universities are filled with old Dippers, though, so young minds continue to be contaminated.
BTW, the sub-title of Gormley's book is: "Saskatchewan's NDP and the Relentless Pursuit of Mediocrity". Highly appropriate.
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